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Water jet recoilless rifle round.

Save propellant.
  (+2)
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Recoilless weapons have many advantages but an equal nuber of disadvantages.

Among the disadvantages are the large mass of propellant needed, and the backblast.

If recoilless ammunition for a wepon such as the Carl Gustav 84mm close support weapon were to be redesigned to use water as its reaction mass, and shipped and carried "dry", then it could be filled immediately prior to use with whatever "water" was immediately available.

There would be less backblast and dust kicked up, the rounds would be lighter and cheaper.

Would be deployed in areas where "water" or its nearest equivalent is readly available, i.e. not deserts.

8th of 7, Aug 17 2010

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       No, you're not. When you get one to bits, it suddenly becomes obvious how it could be done.   

       Could be Baked any day now.   

       [IT], the sand version makes more sense than you imagine.
8th of 7, Aug 17 2010
  

       I've been kicking this idea around for some time now, including collecting the water in the field. And it is a good one.   

       At its simplest, a plain pipe is used as a smoothbore weapon. The bullet is placed inside, just ahead of the very middle of the pipe, a double-charge of propellant is placed in the middle, and a balloon of water of equal weight to the bullet is placed behind that. When fired, the bullet goes one way and the water goes the other.   

       If the water weight is doubled, it only needs half as much distance, and so on. Plastic bottles of water and a little cutter on the exit are good, too.   

       There is, somewhere in real life, a recoilless weapon that uses a water countermass--carried with the ammo (and containing some dissolved salt, for some reason)--and sliding caps at each end to contain the propellant gasses (I assume for reduced noise and smoke) (or is that the one with plastic shreds for countermass?).   

       Which is why I never posted, obscure though that salt-water one is.   

       There's also an anti-explosives destructor that fires a jet of water into the target (at close range) and another jet the other way to kill the recoil.   

       Scavenging the water (or sand) in the field would make for a heck of a portable heavy weapon. [+]
baconbrain, Aug 17 2010
  

       //"water"// Is water in quotation marks because you're proposing to use urine? What would the infantry use to cool their machine gun barrels?
mouseposture, Aug 18 2010
  

       You could use the blood of screaming prisoners if urine were in short supply.
bungston, Aug 18 2010
  
      
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